Lisa Dausin took over the St. Mary's tennis program last season after spending the past 31 years moving up the ranks in the Northside Independent School District. And she wasted little time making her impact felt on the Rattlers.

As the head coach for both the St. Mary's men's and women's tennis teams, Dausin found success through each. The 2011-12 season saw one of its best in program history from the men, as their 10-15 record earned them their first national ranking, topping off at No. 50. Under the first-year coach, the Rattlers also earned a program-first with a regional ranking as high as No. 10.

Through the season, the Rattlers battled nationally and regionally ranked competitors, Dausin's plan for prepping them for Heartland Conference play. Her plan worked perfectly as the Rattlers boasted the best record against conference competitors (4-1) and entered the conference tournament as the No. 2 seed. The men's tennis team charged the competition in conference, taking home four out of the six Heartland Conference Player of the Week awards. In her first year as head coach, Dausin saw four players make the All-Conference Team, including one of the most decorated players in recent history, senior Marcin Marczewski.

A native of Warsaw, Poland, Marczewski adapted to St. Mary's tennis and the Texas culture quite nicely, saving his best year for his last. Marczewski earned two Player of the Week awards as well as a spot on the All-Conference Team with an overall individual record of 14-8 and overall doubles record of 11-5. Dausin saw her first Conference Outstanding Senior award through Marczewski's success.

Dausin will lose Marczewski as well as seniors Jake Williams, who also made the All-Conference Team, and Nestor Moreno. But she will head into her second season on the heels of the program's best year in recent memory.

On the women's side, she made quick work of the talent on the squad in her first season, improving their record from 5-16 in the 2010 season to 10-16 last season. Dausin had the Rattlers face both nationally and regionally ranked teams to strengthen her players and to prep them for Heartland Conference play, a technique that advanced the Rattlers all the way to the conference semifinals.

The women's team held a bulk of the conference's Player of the Week awards, winning four out of the six awards given out during conference play. Dausin saw two Rattlers earn All-Conference honors, including returning player Valentine Lambrechts, who also won two Player of the Week awards, and senior Angelique DeOliveira.

Entering her second season as the women's head coach after doubling their wins last season, Dausin lost four seniors but revamped the roster with a five-deep signing class that includes a Division I transfer. With her expertise, a successful second season looks within reach.

Before taking over as head coach for St. Mary's, Dausin served for 12 years as the Assistant Athletics Director for Northside ISD before returning to teaching this past school year, when she taught at Warren High School in San Antonio and coached middle-school tennis.

The first female hired in the school district's athletics office, Dausin served as an extension of the athletics director, overseeing the hiring of coaches and doing legal work pertaining to athletics personnel, among other duties.

At St. Mary's, she will look to build upon the foundation laid last season, when the men went 5-14 and the women 5-16.

Before moving into the athletics office at Northside ISD, she worked at Marshall High School, coaching tennis and assisting other sports from 1980-1994. In 1995, she became the school's Girls Coordinator.

A St. Mary's graduate, Dausin has always had tennis in her blood. She played tennis, basketball and softball at St. Mary's. She graduated in 1979 with an education degree with a teacher's certification, and went on to get her master's degree in education at Southwest Texas State in 1983. She later completed her coursework for another master's degree in counseling at Texas-San Antonio in 1998.

Born in Del Rio, she spent much of her childhood in San Antonio, graduating from McCollum High School. Dausin is married to Bryan, a football coach at Warren High School. They have two sons, Ross and Rex.